Marin Cilic clinched his place in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals after subduing Belgian David Goffin 6-3 7-6 (11-9) in the third round of the Paris Masters on Thursday.
The Croatian ninth seed struggled to close out the contest as he watched five match points go begging before finally bagging a pulsating second-set tiebreak.
Eighth seed Goffin had won all three of his previous meetings with Cilic and had been among the players in the run to secure one of the two remaining spots in the eight-man field at London’s O2 Arena.
But it was the 2014 U.S. Open champion who refused to buckle under pressure as he staved off set points in the second set before sealing victory to book a quarter-final with either world number one Novak Djokovic or Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori and Gael Monfils have already qualified for the Nov 13-20 tournament in London.
